Brooders are used in agricultural locations, including poultry houses, in order to provide heat to the animals provided in the agricultural locations. Most brooders are large and are shipped to the agricultural locations, where they then need to be assembled prior to operation. In view of this, manufacturers of brooders are always searching for ways in which they can reduce their shipping costs of brooders, without affecting the operation of the brooder itself, and without affecting the time to assemble the brooders. One typical area of a brooder that causes shipping containers to be large (thus resulting in higher shipping costs) is the emitter. The emitter is typically a thin and delicate piece of stainless steel that is pre-welded into a conical configuration. As such, because the emitter is prewelded into a conical configuration, and because the emitter is a delicate and important piece of the brooder, shipping containers for the brooders tend to be large in order to provide enough space for the preassembled emitter to be properly positioned and protected within the shipping container. As such, it would be desirable to provide an improvement in the design of the emitter which would allow for more economical packaging/shipping of same along with the remainder of the brooder. Furthermore, it would also be desirable to provide an improvement in the design of the emitter which results in ease of assembly in the field.
Brooders also have burner assemblies having burner heads that are formed from two plates that are either bolted or welded together. The formation of these plates is typically performed by an expensive process, and the use of tools is required to secure the two plates together, which further adds to the time and expense associated with the formation of the burner heads. Furthermore, the plates that are bolted together are formed of cast iron and have very small individualized, and separated burner ports formed therebetween. If these burner ports are not thoroughly cleaned, the cast iron plates would begin to corrode and affect the operation of the brooder. Due to the configuration of the small individualized, and separated burner ports, the burner ports and the plates were hard to clean and sometimes the two plates would have to be unbolted from one another in order for proper cleaning to occur. The plates that are welded together can also cause their own problems as the plates could not be easily separated for cleaning, and as the burner head would tend to warp if there were not enough welds holding the plates together. The warping would cause uneven burning and, thus, would affect the operation of the brooder.
Thus, there is a need for a brooder which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art. The present invention provides for such a brooder.